Reece's Dungeon Rooms

Last session, my players reached a room in my mega-dungeon that I had designed months ago. I’d been looking forward to seeing how they would tackle it, and their solution didn’t disappoint. Here's a breakdown of the room. The Setup The chamber is 60 feet long and 30 feet wide. At the far end stands a large, heavy door, secured by two chains that split off to separate winches and handles embedded in the floor. Near the entrance, there are two glass enclosures containing large snail shells, home to a pair of Flail Snails. The glass enclosures have sliding doors similar to the main exit. To open the door and proceed through the dungeon, two party members must grab the handles and pull the chains southward. This requires two players to commit fully to the task, leaving them unable to contribute to combat. If they let go of the handles, the chains snap back, and the door slams shut, resetting their progress. Here’s the catch: the winch mechanism also controls the glass doors of the Flai...

Quick Overview: When designing traps, there are a few principles I like to stick to: Avoid HP tax A trap that just triggers and deals damage is boring. Damage can be one possible outcome, but if there’s no way to detect or anticipate the trap beforehand, it feels unfair. I want traps to engage players, not punish them arbitrarily. Telegraph the trap Players should have a chance to suspect a trap and actively work to avoid or disarm it. Surprising players with an instant, unavoidable death or injury isn’t satisfying. I prefer giving subtle hints that allow them to deduce the danger and respond accordingly. This is why I find traditional arrow traps a bit dull. They often boil down to players endlessly searching for pressure plates, which can slow down gameplay. Even if you leave clues like holes in walls or shattered arrows it’s often too simplistic to solve or avoid. Reece's Slightly More Interesting Arrow Trap.  Here’s my take on an arrow trap. Not currently in my dungeon but I...

Last session a group of adventurers found a room that I had created months ago. They survived the fight that this trap triggers very easily so I thought I would review it in this blog! This room is entered from the south large double doors. There is a red carpet leading up to a large lever. Around the room 9 sarcophagi are standing up with detailed engravings of dead warriors. The stone tops of these sarcophagi are attached to chains which disappear into the ceiling.  (Players Map of the Chamber) When the lever is pulled all the tombs are opened via the chains going into the ceiling and 8 Thouls are released. The most northern one is a doorway to some secret rooms/treasures. This is a very obvious trap and in my mind, I assumed that when found people would leave it and come back with a clear plan. What happened with this group was that they used the hallway to funnel the dead and burned them alive (dead?) with oil on the rug.  It was a slog but with two hirelings in platemail,...

I created this "trap" a while back, but it has yet to be encountered in my game. The idea is simple: a corridor that ends abruptly with a wall. In the floor, there’s a hatch leading to a continuation of the corridor—but it’s completely submerged underwater. When someone enters this underwater section, they’ll likely have no light and might be tethered to a rope so the rest of the party can pull them back if needed. As they swim forward, they’ll discover another hatch in the ceiling above them. Here’s the trick: both hatches can’t be open at the same time . So, as the person underwater tries to open the second hatch, the first hatch—where the rest of the party is—starts to close. This can create chaotic and tense moments where the party unknowingly fights against the person underwater or even traps a rope in the hatch as it shuts. This trap can not only break up the party but also stops communication and creates a real dilemma. Plus, who really wants to get soaking wet? Imagin...

Often when designing my megadungeon I roll on my table and then stare at the result looking for inspiration. One of the examples I saw said something about magnets, that was all I needed for this: The party will most likely enter this trap room from the south. They see that the bath continues forward but falls away to the left and right. Both walls 1 and 2 can be magnetised (Controlled from a different room) but 1 is magnetised as default.  whoever enters the room first will have their weapons pulled to the left wall (if metal) If they decide to hold on then they too will get pulled to the left wall. the sound of metal hitting the metal magnetic wall will make a loud noise triggering undead to enter via corridor 3 . If they just lost a weapon then its not too bad to jump back over. But if they were in full plate, this could be a huge issue. Pinned to a wall as zombies start eating you.  While this trap is potentially lethal, there are clear ways to avoid its deadlier conseq...

Today I was thinking of more interesting traps. I've run into a routine of making traps in rooms and this can often be an obvious sign that the next challenge is now here for the party to overcome. This could be monsters or a challenge in their path. So I wanted a 10ft hallway like I've used before but now with a built-in trap that's not a HP tax.  Here is what I came up with: The party walks through the door and sees they are at a T-junction of a corridor. The left goes out of sight of their torchlight, and looking to the left, they see a figure just on the edge of the light.  This figure moves his hand up to his face in a shushing motion and then waves them over. Never saying a word or really moving anything but their arm.  This corpse is being puppeteered by spiders who are waiting around the corner. If someone goes over to the corpse they walk right into spiderwebs that were not visible in the low light. The spiders will come around the corner and start the fight. It...

I'm Reece, I've been pressured into starting a blog by my good friend SachaGoat . I'm currently not working due to being sick from Long Covid, so needed a project. I've not DMed in a long time so thought why not jump back in with an OSR Megadungeon!  This blog will be my way of talking about fun room ideas I've had while creating my dungeon. Unfortunately, the people I would normally tell about my ideas will be in my campaign! The campaign takes place in a huge wizards' tower controlled by a powerful lich. If SachaGoat is still reading then please close! I used to write for my work but since contracting long covid, I've been struggling so please forgive any mistakes or terrible English.